UCI BMES Wins National Outstanding Achievement Award

July 2, 2025 - The UC Irvine Biomedical Engineering Society won the Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Biomedical Engineering Society for 2024-2025. This award is the highest recognition a student chapter can receive at the National BMES Annual Student Chapter Awards. 

Out of over 100 schools, the Outstanding Achievement Award is given to one school that demonstrates excellent leadership, interest and growth in biomedical engineering.

This year BMES worked towards hosting high impact large-scale events.  These annual events include the BMES Project Symposium, Industry Night, BME Day, and Junior BME, a high school outreach event.

“Making our events unique allowed us to engage with older members instead of just repeating events every year,” said Neha Muvvala, who was BMES president and has been a part of the club since she arrived at UCI as a freshman. “Our board went above and beyond when it comes to interacting with our members, other student organizations, and even other BMES student chapters around the country, continuing to pursue our mission of fostering an inclusive community within biomedical engineering at UC Irvine.”

Muvvala said she was proud to see her board members’ efforts and motivation be recognized nationally.  “This award will only fuel our motivation to keep improving and bring bigger and better events year after year,” said Muvvala, who graduated this past spring with a B.S. in biomedical engineering. “It is a testament to our efforts in the past, present, and future, and we hope to keep expanding our reach to help as many students flourish on their journeys to becoming biomedical engineers.”

BMES at UCI aims to provide an inclusive community for students pursuing a degree in biomedical engineering through various opportunities focused on academic and professional development. The club hosts a large number of social and professional events such as networking events, and programs such as mentorship, outreach, and project programs which allow members to get involved in biomedical engineering related opportunities outside of the classroom. One of the events the outreach program hosts is BME Day for incoming freshman to learn about the BME program at UCI. Another key program prepared students for the National BMES Student Design Competition. In addition, BMES focused on expanding their memberships to non-engineering majors and graduate students this year.

UCI BMES is affiliated with the national organization which provides resources and support to grow the university chapter. To be considered for an award, chapters across the country submit a Chapter Development Report, which outlines efforts and achievements throughout the year.

“This award is a demonstration of the strength and spirit of the entire biomedical engineering community at UCI. This award recognizes the collaborative culture between our students, faculty, and industry—a culture that values innovation, leadership, and connection,” said Christopher Tan, the incoming president of BMES for the 2025-2026 academic year. “We hope this recognition brings more visibility to the amazing opportunities within the BME program at UCI and encourages even more students to get involved, push boundaries, and support one another.”

UCI BMES has been recognized for many awards by the National BMES over the past five years including the Outstanding Achievement Award for  2022-2023.

– Caroline Lu